Background
Born in Khosrova, Persia, an ethnic Assyrian, he was born into a Chaldean Catholic family, and enrolled as a pupil at the French Lazarist School in Khosrova in 1846.
Born in Khosrova, Persia, an ethnic Assyrian, he was born into a Chaldean Catholic family, and enrolled as a pupil at the French Lazarist School in Khosrova in 1846.
On 27 October 1856, at the age of eighteen, he became a Lazarist novice in Paris. On 25 May 1861, Bedjan was ordained priest there, and, after a few months, returned to Persia/Iran, taking a small reed organ and printing press with him. Until 1880, he worked as a pastor and organist in his home town, and in Urmia.
He then returned to France to raise funds for the printing of liturgical and theological works in Syriac.
From 1885 to 1900, he was active in Ans, Liège, Belgium. He was then appointed pastor to the Daughters of Charity at the Vinzenz-Hospital in the northern Cologne suburb of Nippes, a role that he carried out, alongside his editorial work, until his death.
He was able to complete a Neo-Aramaic Bible translation shortly before the end of his life. He died in Cologne, Germany.
